Happy New Year 2024! 2023 was a transformative year in Martech and aptly dubbed “The Year of Generative AI”. It unfolded as a pivotal chapter in the realms of search and technology, leaving an indelible mark on the landscape. Google took center stage, announcing the Search Generative Experience and launching the Helpful Content Algorithm with the paramount focus on enhancing the customer experience. At the same time, Open AI continued to launch even more powerful versions of ChatGPT.
2023 was pivotal for Milestone as well – transforming into a comprehensive omnichannel, connected digital experiences platform. Going beyond content optimization for search, our solution aims to seamlessly connect experiences throughout the customer journey and across diverse marketing channels. Our focus is on equipping businesses to engage customers at every stage, aligning with their intent for enhanced conversions, and positioning for upcoming trends like Google’s Search Generative Experience and AI Search. The product development in 2023 and continuing into 2024 is centered around three key aspects:
- AI Everywhere
- Personalized Digital Experiences
- Core CMS Workflow Enhancement
2023 Product Launches & 2024 Vision
Key product launches of 2023 and vision for 2024 aligning with our 3 themes that harmonize with the current technological and search landscape:
- AI Everywhere
AI isn’t just streamlining product workflows; it’s revolutionizing search, making it personalized, user-friendly, and experiential. To future-proof content for AI Search, businesses must optimize their tech stack for SEO, Page Experience, and Mobile-first principles. Content should be topical, personalized, marked up with schema for entity recognition, and align with the Helpful Content Algorithm, requiring E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authority, and trust). Achieving this demands content competitor analysis and velocity. In preparation for this new era of search, we’ve launched:
- Milestone AI Content Studio
A cutting-edge end-to-end content solution platform that revolutionizes the way businesses connect with their audience. Beyond automating content generation for enhanced speed to market, this powerhouse focuses on the foundational aspect of content management. Imagine effortlessly creating captivating, relevant content that not only attracts but retains your audience’s attention. Enter the Content Intelligence Dashboard – a game-changer in deciphering the content landscape. Gone are the days of navigating multiple platforms for SEO research. This dashboard consolidates vital insights, offering a panoramic view of search trends, competitor strategies, and content engagement levels. Whether you’re brainstorming for impactful content or evaluating performance metrics, Milestone AI Content Studio sets the stage for success as it perfectly aligns with Google’s Helpful Content Algorithm. With the prowess of Generative AI, our platform ensures businesses stay ahead, predicting content performance through a seamless integration of the Content Intelligence dashboard, AI Generator for various content types (website, social posts, etc.), and performance analytics. Your journey to creating compelling, high-performing content aligned with AI Search starts here.
- Milestone Image Studio
Enhance your brand’s visual impact and embrace the era of multi-search with Milestone’s Image Studio—an innovative solution within Milestone DAM. Introducing the Visual Enhancer, a sophisticated component leveraging AI for image ranking via Google Vision, Image Quality Score, Safe Search Score, automatic entity recognition for Google’s SGE, and AI-based Alt-text generation. This advanced feature guarantees your visuals not only capture attention but also align seamlessly with your brand, offering an intelligent, consistent experience across devices. Embrace the future of visual search with Milestone’s Image Studio.
- AI/ML Multilingual Sites
Beyond traditional on-page translation, our integrated AI/ML multilingual features generate distinct pages for translated sites, ensuring compliance with SEO standards. Crafting content in the native language allows for the effortless real-time creation of translated sites meeting SEO parameters using AI. Any adjustments made to the source site instantaneously reflect on the translated counterparts. Break language barriers and effortlessly connect with a global audience everywhere.
Going into 2024, we’ll harness the power of AI across various features, including schema auto-generation, reviews, predictive analytics, and seamless workflow integration on the Milestone Presence Cloud, simplifying and optimizing your processes.
2. Personalized Digital Experiences
Your audience spans various channels and touchpoints, and as we transitioned into a digital experience platform in 2023, our mission for businesses is clear. We aim to establish a seamless and unified omnichannel presence, coupled with personalized experiences tailored to customer intent and interests. This strategic approach is designed to significantly enhance businesses’ conversion rates. To realize these goals, we’ve implemented remarkable advancements:
- Milestone CMS Personalization
A game-changer that tailors every interaction to individual preferences. Powered by our advanced Customer Data Platform (CDP), seamlessly integrating data, and leveraging Artificial Intelligence, businesses can now create detailed customer profiles for precise segmentation and real-time predictions. Imagine owning a boutique hotel where personalized experiences are crafted effortlessly: from showcasing adventure sports to enthusiasts to presenting curated fine-dining options. With full control using Milestone’s integrated CMS, track and refine personalized strategies. Our comprehensive suite ensures businesses deliver an omnichannel personalized experience, fostering lasting connections while prioritizing data compliance and user privacy. Transform your engagement and revenue goals with Milestone’s unrivaled Personalization offering.
- Apple Business Connect
Through our partnership with Apple Business Connect, Milestone ensures that our customers utilizing Milestone Local gain enhanced control over their business location’s presence on Siri and Apple Maps. This strategic alliance broadens our coverage across numerous channels, empowering businesses to maintain a consistent and accurate online presence. By breaking down data silos, we are committed to fostering trust and confidence in the information presented across various platforms.
- Milestone DAM
A crucial element for empowering digital experiences, we introduced Milestone Digital Asset Manager (DAM) in early 2023. This innovative solution allows businesses to centralize their assets across locations and channels, optimizing them for enhanced search visibility and ensuring seamless distribution across various channels. Beyond deduplicating assets through our Image Studio component, we’re harnessing the power of visual and AI search to maximize the impact of your assets.
- Web Stories
Drive engagement with our audience in an easy snackable format and make the best use of getting featured on Google Discover. Milestone Web Stories make it easy for businesses to create and deploy web stories and drive page traffic and conversions, particularly for non-branded content.
- GA4 integration on Milestone Analytics
As Google phased out Universal Analytics in favor of Google Analytics 4, aligning with the shift towards granular data and privacy-centric considerations, we have seamlessly integrated with GA4. Our collaboration harnesses GA4’s event-based insights within Milestone Analytics, prioritizing customer data protection. This integration not only facilitates a smooth transition but also provides a versatile dashboard for enhanced control, improved data structuring, elevated data privacy standards, and precise granular event tracking.
Our additions and enhancements in 2024 on the digital experience frontier:
- CMS Componentization
We are poised to enhance our CMS capabilities significantly through componentization, leveraging the MACH architecture and a hybrid headless approach. This strategic move aims to empower your business with a robust multichannel strategy. By embracing componentization, each content element becomes a modular building block, allowing for flexible and efficient content management. This means your business can seamlessly connect all its experiences across diverse channels, enabling the creation of content once and its effortless publication everywhere. This approach transcends limitations on content types, providing a streamlined process that aligns with the dynamic requirements of different channels and devices. The result is a more agile and versatile content management system tailored to meet the demands of the ever-evolving digital landscape.
- Content and Technical Health Scorecards
Transparency is key and with our content and technical health scorecards, your business will know exactly how well your content and website are performing, just so that your business’s visibility on search is where it should be.
- Unified Analytics
Using our Performance Data Platform, CRMs, and our built-in scorecards, we’re going to be giving you unified analytics, so you can judge your business as a whole and across locations. This coupled with our Digital Experience Platform is an offer you can’t refuse.
- Core CMS Workflow Enhancement
To drive digital experiences, speed to market is key and we made tremendous strides in offering our customers autonomy in carrying out tasks such as building their websites and creating pages. We did this through the launch of our:
- No-code page builder
With no developer dependency, Milestone CMS users can now create and publish pages with ease. Using our template and component library, choose a page layout and design that suits your business best, enter the content using our easy-to-edit content blocks, source optimized images from Milestone DAM, preview and publish – all in 5 minutes.
- Quick website builder
Not just pages with our quick website builder, your business can configure & deploy enterprise-grade websites in no time. In our 5-step process, you can select templates, choose your look and feel, pick add-on features to drive search visibility and have your very own website ready in no time at all.
“As we bid farewell to 2023, Milestone stands at the forefront of innovation, ready to propel your business into a dynamic 2024. Our successes this year and the exciting developments on the horizon showcase our commitment to keeping you ahead in the tech race. With Milestone, anticipate not just adaptation, but a thriving future where innovation meets your unique business needs.” Milestone, President & Founder, Benu Aggarwal.
And here are our top 2023 achievements:
- Hosted the 9th Annual Engage Digital Marketing Conference 2023
- Forester mentions for Milestone CMS and AI Content Studio
- Thought-Leadership Articles on Search Engine Land Are A Buzz!
- Leaders in G2 Fall and Winter 2023 updates in Web Content Management, Local Marketing, SEO Tools Category
- US Search Finalists in 6 categories
- HSMAI Adrian Award 2023 for Digital Campaign – Website
- Milestone announced the Apple Business Connect Partnership in April 2023
- Milestone named partner of the year by HSMAI Los Angeles
Embrace a transformative 2024 with Milestone – your strategic partner in navigating the ever-evolving tech landscape.
